Insurmountable Enmity – Chapter 7, Act 3, Strip 28

Phew, that was a close on! The powerful seal on that door almost proved insurmountable for our hero! But then it was surmounted, thanks to his really insurmountable hatred for canines, shared by all cats and cat-like creatures.

For if a seal was indeed some kind of sea-kitten, as K’ip at first suspected, he could never have gotten himself to hurt it in any way, shape or form…and would likely have starved to death in front of that sealed door. For what kind of monster could hurt a kitten?

Fortunately for him, Si’ri looked up the facts. And as it turns out, a seal is some kind of sea-puppy, instead of some kind of sea-kitten. Now, there might be creatures out there who couldn’t get themselves to hurt a puppy, either…but those would be creatures with far less feline DNA than an En’ilef. For an En’ilef, there’s only one thing that’s more deserving of punishment than a puppy, and that would be a dog…but in the absence of a sea-dog*, the present sea-puppy is definitely the most appropriate target for a damn good thrashing.

K’ip’s advice in the last panel seems solid. Si’ri should better not watch what is about to happen. Cats can look cute in nearly all circumstances, but they just don’t look their best when brutally beating smaller canine creatures. They know that, too, but they just can’t help themselves.

And, yeah, Si’ri is a bit myopic, and needs glasses for reading. At first she refused to wear them out of vanity, and just moved closer to the text…but after getting squished in a book several times, she decided that that wasn’t an effective strategy for a person her size. She has a more fashionable pair of glasses, too, but for adventuring she prefers this hard-wearing model.

More on Thurs…uh, Monday.

* NB, the sailor on that ship they were on earlier only qualifies as a “sea-dog” in the metaphorical sense, that’s why he didn’t trigger any murderous blood-thirst in K’ip.